Pauls Rants & Revelations

We just got a 3 disc set from Target of the Duck Tales cartoon. It was just in a random place on the shelf and my wife and I were almost racing to grab it once we saw it.

From our youths, and the youths of most late-20 somethings, Duck Tales was quite an enjoyable show what with the antics Scrooge and the gang get into. That and Tailspin I think did more to keep me sane through elementary school than the child shrinks I sometimes made nervous.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it in your local general purpose mega store, you can check it out on Amazon. Also while I was searching, I found DVDs for Tailspin, Chip n Dales Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck. Now all I need is a couple hundred buck to buy them all and I’ll be reliving my childhood till doomsday.

Besides, watching these is infinitely better than watching most of the stuff on Cartoon Network or Disney nowadays. With the exception of Foster Home for Imaginary Friends, both those creative companies have gone to shit in the last few years. I mean, come on, who would watch a show called “My Gym Partners A Monkey”? Who would name a show that?

Do yourself a favor if you are fan of the great brand of animation we grew up with; go out, get the DVDs, and kill the cable. Don’t let you kids be exposed to such poor quality.

Oh, and you can get Fosters through iTunes. That one is good for anyone of any age to watch.

-Cheers

No, I’m not referring to the recent posts on data recovery I’ve written. This is more towards workload. It seems I have reached my limit as I have absolutely no more room in my brain to keep track of all the projects I have to do. Its a bit more stressful as my boss is out for a few days, but what the heck? Every trapeze flier likes going without a net now and again.

At least things are not behind (terribly) and I will pretty much have everything back on track by the time the boss gets back. I just felt like venting about it a bit.

And boss? If you are reading this everything is A OK!

-Cheers

As I am now firmly in my late 20′s, I thought it about time to re-examine my life and see where I am compared to where I want to be.

For better or worse, this took about 10 minutes (which is the amount of time it takes me to walk to the nearest all0night Starbucks; go figure).

Anyways, I thought about what I have in life and what I lack. I have, in no particular order, my (mostly) perfect kids, what most would consider a trophy wife, a job I love (usually), and a sense of internal satisfaction.

When I examined what I lack, I found that the only thing missing is winning the lottery. My wife said, strangely, that this will happen very soon as she has a “special feeling” about this ticket which is totally different than the other special feelings on the last 50 or so tickets.

So, from where I thought I would be, I can firmly say that I will never be an astronaut, my rock star dreams were really just dreams, and being a ninja in todays world is just plain not practical. I can also say, with equal firmness, that I am perfectly fine with that.

Can you say that same?

-Cheers

Is there any business nowadays that is interested in helping you out rather than making a buck?

We are needing a new tire for the car. We just need the one tire. Thats all. However, when I shopped around for a deal I was at the very least disappointed with the service I would be getting from the major tire chains.

For instance, Company A (whom I will not mention because their name makes we angry enough to turn into the Hulk) said that they could replace it for $84.95. I though “great” until they told me that that was the price per tire installed. I told them I just need one tire and they said they cant do that; that they would only replace all 4 tires. Bullshit, I told them. I’ll go somewhere else.

So I call Company B (same reason as the company above) and they say they can do it for $60 installed. They also said they only do all four tires. I asked to speak to the manager to ask the obvious question, “WTF?”, and he said that it was their company poilicy to only do all 4 tires.

Well, that company won’t be getting my business thats for sure.

So now I take it to the local Saturn dealership. They said that can do just the one tire (bonus) and I even has time for an oil change thats needed. The price though, will be $138 for the tire and mounting/balancing. With the oil change, that will be $165 total. A somewhat shocking price at the tire thats been sitting in a warehouse for ages and is for a 2 year old vehicle. But as the price is less than what I would be charged everywhere else, I have to accept it. But I don’t have to like it.

At the time of this writing I am sitting in the dealership waiting room waiting for the tire to be brought from the warehouse (at least they have free wifi). I expressed my gripes to the service tech who checked in the car but I can see that he has been doing this for a long time as he took the rather lofty position of “this is how it is, take it or leave is”. Well, I have to respect a man who knows his business.

To get back to the point of all of this ranting, I am wondering where in the world is a business that will give you just what you need and not charge you an arm and a leg for it? Tire companies will give you a deal only if you buy 4 tires; Software companies will sell you a “package” that contains crap you would never buy but have to install anyway to make the desired software function; you can get a 4 piece chicken nugget pack only if you buy a happy meal; its starting to wear on me truth be told.

I think that only place that I go to that gives me exactly what I want is the coffee shop. I tell them I want a half cup of espresso with caramel, raisins, milk, and 2 pepper mints ground in, and I get it. That is the only business that I can think of where I get what I want (or need) exactly.

Any other examples of this? Am I wrong (or right)?

A coworker of my wifes commented once on a show he saw the previous night. My wife listened and went about her work and when he asked her a question about it, she responded “We dont have a TV”.

Her coworker was, to say the least, flabbergasted. He said something to the effect of “You might as well not even breathe” (and honey, if you are reading this, correct me if I am wrong). Upon hearing this I thought “how sad for him”. You see, its been nearly 3 years since we have gotten rid of television in our home. We have hardly noticed it at all and I started thinking about what we do instead of watching the “boob tube”; which, funnily enough, it is pretty much become nowadays.

My answer; mostly, we read. We go for walks. We go to archery, play soccer, bingo, dinner with family and, more often than not, we talk about events, life and general goings-ons in the world. We also more often than not have the heated debate on particular topics. But this is perfectly fine since I am usually right (unless my wife tells me I am not).

After considering all we do without television, I started to think if we are spending too much money on things that are not television. For instance; a decent tv will cost you around $200 but you only pay for this once. If you want to watch anything, it’s usually $40 – $50 a month for cable access, plus any of the pay-per-view items you order. But lets just say $50 a month on average. Add in $15 a month in electricity to power the thing and you are looking at $65 a month for only one, non-interactive form of entertainment in your home. Does that seem worth it?

Lets look at what we (my family that is) spend on non-tv things. We read. A lot. So much so that we have a library card and every 2 weeks or so get 10-20 books from the library. The cost of this is in the gas it takes to get to the library (we were a little bummed at this since the library use to be walking distance from our house, but no matter). So our chief form of entertainment (reading) costs us about $2 in gas. Not a bad tradeoff, actually. We also buy new books (such as the latest Harry Potter) so if we average 1 new hardbound book a month, thats $20 more. That’s $22 so far.

We also have internet access with is $50 a month. But I use this for work chiefly so the “entertainment” portion of this is about $5 for surfing the net and, on occasion downloading episodes of Fosters Home for Imaginary friends (my sons favorite show and, well… mine too). An entire season costs about $20 through iTunes so if we average 1 a week (usually on the weekends) thats $8 more. Add electricity; another $5 lets say.

So far we have $22 for books, $18 for digital entertainment.

So what about news? Well, I can’t speak for my wife, but I have an RSS feed from the local paper and feeds from Digg, Slashdot, Google News, MSNBC and a dozen others. I get all the news I can handle and certainly more than is in the local daily paper. This, however, costs nothing, so I won’t count it.

And our hobbies? Well, walking if free. It costs about $10 in gas for me to go to archery and another $10 for my wife to go to soccer every month. Dinners with family are actually saving us money since we are not paying for food, so take back the $15 (3 a month which would cost around $5 a meal) as a credit to put to our entertainment.

Now what are we at: $22 for books, $18 for digital entertainment, $20 for our hobbies. Thats $60. Subtract our $15 credit and we are left with $45 for our non-tv entertainment.

TV: $65; Reading, hobbies, digital entertainment: $45

So we save $20 a month and get far more bang for our buck. But its not just about money saving (or spending). Let look at the more emotional, physical, and psychological aspects of a TV free life. We talk and interact with each other instead of sitting on the sofa watching tv where the only talk that happens is an occasional outburst when someones favorite contestant is eliminated. We go outside and do stuff instead of watching other people do stuff. Our bodies are moving and doing things instead of at rest. We are tired at the end of the day not because our brains are exhausted from “info-tainment”, but from running around for hours (and anyone who says soccer is easy has never played; my wife is my hero for running around for a solid half hour a couple a times a game).

My kids also benefit, I think greatly, from not having an easy to access form of entertainment. They have to use their brains to think of things to do (sometimes after a helpful suggestion from us). Often times they are running around the house making pillow forts, jumping from the couch, and generally making havoc of everything. This is stressful (as it always happens when i finish picking things up) but in hindsight its great in that they are entertaining themselves and having fun. They play with their toys and with mom and dad and only occasionally watch a movie (usually at their cousins house) or tv.

Aside from the monetary gains there are also several gains physically and mentally from ignoring the beast of television. I’m not against television, mind you. I watch it every so often and I watch movies and such, but as for the primary means of information and entertainment, well, there are a lot better sources available nowadays that are far better and/or far cheaper.

Do you still think there is a place for television in our homes (and bedrooms and kitchens and cars)? Do you think that you really need television to get by in life? I think not, but that, as they say, is my opinion. Whats yours?

-Cheers

In an age of the “sensitive male” movie character (gag me), it is in the past that we must look to in order to find the brutish, suave, and downright bad ass movie men that are not only entertaining, but idolized by men for their rakish ways.

So here I present, in chronological order, the greatest movie bad-asses of all time (so far, at least).
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I know the motto is “Form follows function” but really this just isn’t the way most clients think about it. I mean, we, as developers have to make the thing work. That is our number one priority.

The client, more often than not, wants it only to be pretty. They want it to be this color and have these design elements and what not and if there is any money left over, make it work.

For instance, I was bidding on a project and the guy seemed fairly intelligent. I asked him questions about what he wanted the application to do and what he expected from the project and he answered them well and completely. He then asked why I hadn’t asked him any questions regarding the design of the app. I told him that “form follows function” and tried to explain that the first step was just making the thing work. Making it pretty was the next step.

He then proceeded to tell me that you dont build a car like that; that they start with sketches of what it will look like. I then told him that I am not building a car; I’m building a web app, and that if he was going to use analogy’s that he should use the correct one. The discussion disolved from there and I ended up turning down the project because I (a) dont need the money that bad and (b) would rather not have to deal with a guy telling me how to do my job.

The problem with web design, or any design, is that it really doesn’t start from sketches. It starts with a list of objectives or features. A car designer has a set or directives before he gets started on the next coupe (i.e. more streamlined, compact, low clearance, etc.). Then, taking these things in mind, starts drawing.

I know that some people will say that a comp is the first step in a new site. Wrong, says I. What if the client comes back 2 days before the site is to go live (and you know they will) and says that they want to take out this or that bit of functionality. Not only do you have to change the application, but the design as well.

The first thing one should do, as the motto goes, is make it work first. After that is locked in, then hand the list of functions, button names, desired colors and what not to the designer. That way they have a solid foundation to work from without fear that the nice bar at the top wont eventually be cut out (an exaggeration, but not far off).

Point being, for those dealing with clients, tell them that you can’t build a skyscraper without a solid foundation. And if they keep pressing the ‘design’ aspects, tell them that it will cost them more their way. If they are fine with that, please send them this way (I have some credit card to pay off )

-Cheers

Yes. I am a beta tester now. Where do I find the time you ask? In between saving baby monkeys from rivers and DNA sequencing for cancer cures.

But in somewhat less seriousness, Logitech has accepted my as a beta tester and I even got my first thing to try out. Another one is on the way in a few weeks as well.

What is it you ask? Good question. Unfortunately, I cant answer that as I had to sign a non disclosure agreement. Here is the skinny of it:

I can say (loud and proud) that I am a Logitech tester; I cannot say what I’m testing. I can’t even tell you the purpose of the thing. Or what its compatible with. And I’m pretty sure I can’t even describe the color of it.

On the plus side, I get products 6 months before they are on shelves. I get to keep the products with no strings. All I have to do it answer some questions about it after a few weeks. Thats it.

That being said, why, do you now ask, why I would choose to do this? Well its quite simple; it makes me feel cool.

Yes, that right. Its make me feel cool. And don’t even make that face at me; you know you would totally do it too if offered.

But don’t be totally disheartened. I will eventually review it, but probably only after it shows up in your local Best Buy. Until then you will just have to suffer. Mwwahahhhhaaaaaaaaa.

-Cheers

No, I’m not talking about some new super fan-tabulous company that will solve your problems with this flyout menus and misspelled name. I mean the actual act of starting up your computer.

Some people will be like “Startup? I never turn it off!”. This didn’t use to be the case.

I started wondering about this as I was turning on my system this morning; an act that take about 10 minutes as there are a lot of things that load. As I was sitting here waiting desperately for the login screen to appear, I started longing for the days of Windows 3.1 where I started my computer and in 30 seconds I was off and running.

Nowadays, people don’t turn off there systems; only their monitors. It is “recommended” that folks keep their systems running 24/7. The reason is mostly because your system updates in the middle of the night so as not to bother you during the day. Personally, I find it really annoying as my system draw a lot of power (to the tune of about $40 a month).

It would be great if my system started faster, but I find it quite unlikely that it will be under 30 seconds. I found a somewhat old (from 2005) PC Mag article that had tips for a faster startup, but mostly its about killing services you don’t need and programs you don’t use. Kind of unhelpful really.

So my question is: Does anyone out there have a good way to make a Windows XP box load faster? Some tweak or program that they have tried that works? Leave a comment if you have anything that you tried and found to be useful.

Oh, and if you (and you know who you are) suggest that I get a Mac, save your breath. I already spec’d out my Macbook Pro and I need only the $5k that it will cost. Even so, I don’t want to give up my windows box quite yet.

-Cheers

I am very, very afraid of the dentist. I know that I’m not alone in this feeling but its has been years since I have been and I know that there are many bad things that are going to have to be drilled out and outright removed.

I haven’t gone mostly due to lack of insurance. My work insurance is rather expensive and it was just yesterday that I was approved for Regence insurance that will start on the 1st of May. My only problem now is getting in to see the dentist. Which, evidently, wont be until June (erg).

There is a “semi-emergency” option that they can use if I am experiencing pain (which I am) so I think that on Monday (the 30th) I will make the appointment. Its not like I’m lying about it, but the pain has been going on for so long now that I have sorta gotten used to it (except when I eat on the left side, then its pain city for me).

What I am curious about though is why the dentist is always so busy that every appointment that anyone makes is always many months out? Why not next week? What the hell are they doing? Why are they so busy? Do they just want to have a lax schedule?

It’s annoying to say the least, but at least, maybe by Monday, I can have some of the problem teeth taken care of.

-Cheers